The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Sunday—Every time I fly across the mountain ranges and deserts, I realize what a great country is ours. The trip on Friday was interesting and colorful. Near Phoenix, Ariz., I saw some of the government homesteads and camps. An official from the Farm Security Administration, who happened to be on the plane, told me they were working out successfully.

I managed to do a great deal of reading on this trip. There is an autobiography dictated by Dan Beard, who is now about eighty years old, which you will find delightful if you are interested in stories of the people who made our country and the recollections of a man who has lived a long and interesting life.

I think you will also enjoy a novel by Rose Franken, called "Claudia." This story of a young married couple will give many people a chance to say; "Why, that's just what happened to us," or "How funny—we did just the same thing." It is a record of everyday life, but the people who lived this daily round were rather unusual youngsters. A few of the sentences from the book remain with me and so I pass them on to you.

" `But you pay so much when you love like this,' Claudia whispered.

`Then pay it darling. Don't be niggardly with life. Open your arms to it. Be friends with happiness and be friends with pain."'

Then again, "Everything you have in life is only lent you—a loan is more precious than a gift and brings with it a greater obligation."

How many of us, I wonder, in our daily relationships think of our time together as a loan? It might considerably change some of the things which we do. It might heighten our happiness and minimize our pain.

My day in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday was really delightful, in spite of the fact that the Texas climate is warmer than one expects it to be at this season of the year. The two grandchildren are very attractive and I am always fascinated when I hear "Tony," aged three, solemnly address me as "Grandmother Roosevelt."

Ruth and I went to the broadcasting station in the afternoon and listened to Elliott's broadcast. As he had to do this twice, once at 6:15 and again at 9:00, I was interested in seeing what was done in the control room. We sat through the first broadcast in the room with him, and the second time we listened over the radio in his office. His voice is toned down, whereas the announcer's voice is given more volume, all by the proper use of machinery in the control room. I left Fort Worth last night on the sleeper plane and reached Washington this morning.

E.R.

(COPYRIGHT, 1939, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, October 9, 1939

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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